Do me a favor and fast forward 30 to 40 seconds if you're bored of

hearing the origin story of this show. But we started making terrible things for asking in 2016. I was an

unemployed somewhat recent widow.

I was secretly pregnant with my newish boyfriend's baby.

And I was about to publish my memoir

about my husband dying of brain cancer. I had an inbox

filled with stories and I had a rejected book title that I wanted to use for something.

Terrible things for asking, I was told was a little too negative for a book about my

husband dying.

I wanted to use that title for something that something became this show.

Seven years, over 250 episodes, over 200 million downloads. Tours where I have met thousands of you, hugged,

thousands of you probably, apologized to everyone who came into contact with me for my BIA

which is honestly out of my control and is out of control.

This show has been the most meaningful work of my life and also the job that I've held the longest,

which is really not saying much because my average before this was about 18 months. 18 months and I was like I think we've

both gotten what we can out of this experience let's part ways. I have said numerous times that I could make an episode of this show every day for

a hundred years and never tell the same story twice because as universal as our human experiences are, every story is also truly, truly entirely unique.

And I could make an episode of this show every day for 100 years if I was a robot.

And sadly I am not a robot even if I treat myself like one sometimes.

And I do actually do that most of the time.

I put in minimal care, I expect maximum output.

And as the podcast market has changed over the past seven, eight years, so did the expectations and the output.

...